Robin, I was upset to hear that you were treated so rudely by the folks
who run Animal Attractions.  That was totally un-called for.
 
But before anyone goes off and accuses AnimalAttractions of dishonesty,
I urge them to read the rules posted on the site.  They say
"Monthly winners will be selected by a committee of AnimalAttraction.com
employees and/or designated representatives who will select a winner
from among the top five (5) point recipients in each category"
 
In other words, it is NOT the photo with the highest rating that wins.
THEY select a winner from the top FIVE.
 
You may not like that -- I don't -- but it's in the rules.  And it's
probably there specifically to prevent mere popularity votes from
overshadowing votes based on artistic value.
 
>Sara wrote:... I got a rather disturbing email from Dan again who
>said that the ferret community is cheating and not following
>the contest in the true spirit ...
 
So what is the 'true spirit' of a photo contest?  I've judged art and
photography contests.  To judge a photo contest, you have to look at
several photos, and you have to rate them according to your personal
judgement of their qualities.  You can only vote once.  If you go to
the main AnimalAttreactions webpage and click on the contest, you have
to vote on a picture before you get to see the next picture.  While
there is nothing to ensure that you rate all the pictures, there is an
obvious effort to get to you look at several pictures.  So they are
trying to get you to actually rate the photos.
 
So this suggestion:
>... I hope many, most, all of you can go to the site several times
>and vote a 10 for Gage and drive his average score up real high.
 
is actually suggesting "stuffing the ballot box" -- which is a form of
cheating.  This I will not do, and if people indeed go several times to
just that one photo and cast a vote as directed, then the site manager
is justified in his claims of cheating (or at least not following the
contest in the true spirit.)
 
[By the way, does everyone know that any website can read the IP
address of any computer viewing it?  It's quite likely that they can
tell if people cast duplicate votes.  And that may be just cause for
a front-runner to be demoted.)
 
I do like to hear when people have pictures in photo contests, and I
will happily go to a contest site and cast my vote.  But I will cast
my vote according to my judgement of the photo's merits.  (And yes,
the SuperTonks picture was first-rate!  If it was demoted because of
percieved ballot-box stuffing, that would be a real pity.)
 
When people have asked that we vote more than once, or have urged a
high rating regardless of the merits, I had assumed that such language
was mere hyperbole, and people are not actually asking us to help rig
a contest.  I hope that is true.
 
-Claire
[Posted in FML issue 5327]